Doing Your Due Diligence - Buyer Beware

[Joshua Dorkin]

We've been living in our home for 5 1/2 years and due to some serious hail damage, are in the process of getting a new roof.

Before I explain the significance, just last year we had to replace our attic fan, because we noticed it was not working. As this summer raged on, we realized that the fan was again broken. The only reason these fans would keep burning out is that there wasn't enough ventilation, but with 3 roof vents and soffit vents around the house, that shouldn't have happened.

As we again had the fan replaced a few weeks ago, I explored the attic and noticed that I couldn't find the vent holes that were obvious from the roof. Well, I couldn't find them because they weren't there....

I was 99% certain that I was right, and as we re-roof the house, I'm now 100% certain.

Apparently, whoever put the vent caps on the roof (the last roofer), clearly was pulling the wool over the homeowners and inspectors, who missed this deception. I just reviewed our inspection report and our home inspector also missed this.

I suppose the point of this post is that there are many shady people out there and you have to do your due diligence.

That, and I suppose you can't count 100% on your inspection report when buying a new property . . . a somewhat disconcerting revelation.